Tuning up — back in the day

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

For all the oldies like me who were playing before electronic tuners were widespread, how did you used to tune your bass and ensure all the band were in tune?

 

I used to use an A440 tuning fork; I'd whack it in my knee and hold it over the pickup so it comes through the amp, and play a 12th fret harmonic on the A string, listening for the 'beats' to stop as I turned the A string's machine head. Then once the A string was tuned I'd play the 5th fret harmonic on the E string and the 7th fret harmonic of the A string and similarly listen for the beating to stop as I turned the E string's machine head. Then I tune the D & G strings similarly with 5th and 7th fret harmonics. Then I'd give the guitarist an E or A 12th fret harmonic for him to tune in a similar way. When there was a keyboard player it was even worse.

 

It was a hassle, sometimes took a long time, and often a bit hit & miss — especially when changing strings. My modern tuners (TC Unitune & Boss TU-3W) make it a lot easier and quicker and it is easy to forget that classic 60s & 70s records were probably recorded with the instruments tuned like this.

 

The rolling stones (or their road crew) used to use a Conn tube strobe unit to tune up backstage - which is currently for sale on reverb.

 

[Lozz196]

For me it was by ear to my fave album - get the G in tune then match the rest. I found it easier with the G than the lower notes back then.

[tauzero]

When I started, I'd tune to the piano in the house. In a band, we'd take somebody's guitar as the reference and tune to it (can't remember how the reference was established) or, if we were rehearsing in a rehearsal room at school, tune to the piano. Then electronic tuners came in at consumer prices when I was in my early 20s (the ones with a real meter at first) and I never looked back.

[BigRedX]

My first band was mostly a recording band. We had two reed organs with different tones and different preset chords, but unfortunately were out of tune enough with each other to not be usable at the same time. We'd tune to whichever one we were using for each song.

 

For my second band which played live we would all (bass, guitar and other synth) tune to our Wasp synth. This then had to be set up for the first song which had an opening filter pulse which was triggered from a drum machine, but the opening time of the filter was set using the repeat function on the envelope generators. Although I had a patch chart showing the positions of the knobs this had to be fine-tuned to the speed of the drum machine which as set by another rotary control. I could take us up to 5 minutes to tune up and the set up the synths and drum machine for the opening song all of which had to be done with the band on stage in front of the audience.

 

In 1983 my next band with was all synths used a test tone at the start of our backing tape for tuning, which again had to be done on stage in front of the audience immediately before we played. After 3 gigs like this I went out and bought a Boss TU12 tuner and have never had to inflict the tuning song on my audience since.

 

Having said that electronic tuners are not without their foibles. At a Terrortones gig our guitarist had managed to set her tuner to something other than A=440. The sound was terrible on stage so the only person who noticed that something was wrong was our drummer who was sandwiched between the guitar and bass amps. He kept telling me us to tune up which we diligently did, each perfectly in tune with ourselves and completely out of tune with the other. It was only at the next practice where we could hear everything properly that we realised what had happened.

[itu]

I have used 

- tuning forks (A, C) 

- records 

- other instruments 

- various electronic (quartz) tuners from a watch to bigger units (KORG Master tuner for double bass, Peterson SAMS at home) 

 

My all time favourite is an inexpensive Ibanez MU40 (tuner metronome). A small, gold coloured package. I have one in a mono single, and another in a mono dual case. 

 

My basses stay well in tune. I don't need (or even like) pedal metronomes. 

[Mykesbass]

Guitar - pitch pipes!

[tauzero]

21 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Guitar - pitch pipes!

 

When I were a lad, I found those impossible to tune to. I could probably manage it now.

[BassTool]

Yup, +1 for pitch pipes in the 70's and the head of my bass held against a window pane for resonance/volume along with the guitarist 🤭

[Skybone]

Pitch pipes...until I could afford a quartz tuner. 

[ezbass]

Pitch pipes for me too, although I found them rubbish for ages (they were fine, it was my ears that were at fault). TBH, once I could discern pitch, I tuned to records (E or A usually) and then harmonics from there.

[Rosie C]

4 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I used to use an A440 tuning fork; I'd whack it in my knee and hold it over the pickup so it comes through the amp, and play a 12th fret harmonic on the A string, listening for the 'beats' to stop as I turned the A string's machine head. Then once the A string was tuned I'd play the 5th fret harmonic on the E string and the 7th fret harmonic of the A string and similarly listen for the beating to stop as I turned the E string's machine head. Then I tune the D & G strings similarly with 5th and 7th fret harmonics.

 

 

Same for me - in our high school band I had an 'A' tuning fork in my bag. When we had a keyboard player join the band I got the 'A' from her.

I forget how/whether the guitarist tuned up   

[msb]

Still carry a pitch fork although I haven’t used it in decades.
Very thankful for little clip on tuners.